Hello everyone,

I'm still in Auckland, New Zealand and I've given up the hope of finding a job here. Instead, I've booked an Island Fiesta cruise (!), which will take me to Vanuatu, Noumea and some other exotic islands from April 15 - 25, and I've been doing a lot of dancing. My salsa teacher wants me to join her special team for dancing salsa on stage during special events, but I'm not so sure if I can commit to that, because I don't know how long I'm going to stay in New Zealand. Moreover, I don't really like being the centre of attention. Hmmm, sounds like a no to me... I've also been doing Zumba, flamenco, Broadway, Contemporary, Dance Fit Chair and Scottish Country Line Dancing. All heaps of fun! See, I'm so busy, I don't even have time to work!

Let's go back to Queenstown, where I was from January 10 - 13, 2010, and where I danced the night away on the first day of our arrival in the party capital of New Zealand...

When we arrived in Queenstown on Sunday, January 10, the prospect of not having to unpack and re-pack my suitcase for 3 days instantly put a smile on my face. Such bliss! The room that I shared with Marianne had two huge wardrobes, so one of the first things I did upon entering the room, was emptying my suitcase and putting all the contents on shelves and hangers. It felt really good not to have to live out of a suitcase for a while. I already told you that I had a good time on the dance floor that first night of our stay. I went to bed late and I woke up late the next day as well. The people who'd joined us in Christchurch - Gunilla & Lars from Sweden; Maria from Slowakia; David from England; Eilish from Australia; Gloria & Mariella from Austria (they were twins); and a blond girl from Australia whose name I've forgotten (sorry!) - were a little bit disappointed that we were going to spend 3 nights in the same place, but Marianne and I had been looking forward to it. Finally some time to relax and catch up on some much needed sleep!

It rained on Monday. I didn't wake up until 11.40 am, but because of the rain, I hadn't missed much. Some members of our group had done terrifying things while I was sleeping, like jumping out of planes or swinging on an elastic rope between two rocks. They told me their stories while I was having brunch. The pictures of theirrisky adventures looked impressive, but didn't persuade me to do the same - much to their surprise, hehe! Instead, Marianne and I opted for something boring: we went for a walk in the afternoon. We walked through the park and the botanical gardens (in the rain), we looked around the shops and we had dinner at a Korean restaurant. After dinner, we treated ourselves to a drink at Starbucks and that was it. Not very adventurous, but we both enjoyed it!

On Tuesday, the sun was shining. Hooray! We took a cable car up the mountain and went for a ride on a luge down the mountain (a luge is a tobogan on wheels). Because we didn't want to pay for a cable car ride down the mountain, we walked down. One of the staff members at the luge had told us it 'd take about 20 minutes to walk down the mountain and back into the city, but it took us about an hour and a half! Marianne wanted to have coffee at a certain coffee house that was recommended in one of her guide books. We'd been there on Monday, but it was closed when we arrived. Apparently, it was more of a breakfast and lunch place, because it was open from 7 am - 3 pm. Because the walk took much longer than expected, we were nearly too late again!We arrived at 2.50 pm and luckily, we could still order a cup of coffee. Mission accomplished!

After that, Marianne went to a kiwi wildlife park. I wasn't in the mood for birds, so I went back to our room. Marianne and I met up for dinner again. We went to Hell, a chain of pizza restaurants. They served glutenfree and dairyfree pizzas there and since I hadn't had a pizza for a long time, I just had to try one. It was small, but delicious! After dinner, it was time to pack my suitcase. We were going on a boat trip the next day and we could only take a daypack on board, so everything else had to go in my suitcase. While I was struggling to decide what to put in my daypack and what to leave on shore, Martin texted me. He was playing'stupid games' and having 'a cuple of beers'with some people. Playing stupid games sounded much better than packing my suitcase, so I threw the last things in my suitcase and joined them. It was fun, but because we had to get up on time the next day, everybody left at midnight. It was time to say goodbye to Queenstown.

Next time, I'll tell you about my encounter with a dolphin. Have a great day!